Epic Racing around the World

by Thomas Spannring - (when’s the last time you wrote a blog in your 2nd language?)

It’s always great to have a big event in your hometown. The E100, part of the National Ultra Endurance Series, came to Park City this past weekend. I guess my real hometown would be a small town called Liezen, in Austria, but I have been living here in Northern Utah for the past 6 years or so. Logistically this was great, no long travels involved, especially since these long races start at 6 am usually. That meant I got to sleep in until 4.45am. What a treat.

The race started in the dark, who knew that the sun doesn’t come out until 7am or so. I guess I haven’t been up that early in a long time. I used an old head light I found, and riding in the dark turned out to be really fun. It is so quiet that early in the morning all you can hear is your own breathing and that of your competitors.

Occasionaly, you can hear crackeling noises coming out of the woods and all you can think of is this big moose staring at you. Or maybe it was just a squirrel? When the sun came out, we actually saw a moose, standing there like a statue just staring at us.

The race itself was a lot of fun. Tinker Juarez, Josh Tostado, Chris Etough and myself were riding together for the first stage or so.

After the second leg I happened to be in the lead, which felt great. I was in such a rush, I just kept hammering until after about 6 hours, my body totally shot down on me. I got dizzy (maybe keeping the arm and leg warmers on after the temps went up to about 90 wasn’t such a good idea), and actually had to stop and get off my bike. My hr stayed really high for about 5 min after I got off the bike. I tried for the next 30 min or so to keep riding, but I just couldn’t.

This not being a short XC race, where I could have just finished the race by cruising the last 20 min. or so, I had to make a dicision no racer ever wants to make. I decided to quit. It never feels good, but it really hurts if you have to do it on your home turf and after feeling so great the first part of the race.

This race utilizes some of the best trails in Park City, or the best trails I’ve ever seen, period. I hope more people will come to this event in the future, I will definitely give it another shot next year.